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Indonesian police identify nine hotel bombing suspects

Police publicly identified nine suspects yesterday in the Aug. 5 attack on the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people and wounded nearly 150.

Lieutenant General Erwin Mapasseng said six of the suspects were arrested between April and June, but confessed after the hotel bombing to having helped plan and finance the attack.

The other three were picked up in the days after the car bombing on suspicion of bringing the explosives used to Jakarta from Sumatra island, Mapasseng said.

Police blame both attacks on Jemaah Islamiyah, a terror network operating in Southeast Asia.

Another detainee, Toni Togar, allegedly robbed a bank and used the money to finance the hotel bombing, police said.

National police chief General Da'i Bachtiar first announced arrests of the nine suspects Sunday, but didn't identify the men or provide details.

All were named yesterday.

``We already knew the gang and it was just a matter of time before we picked them up,'' Mapasseng said. ``Their motive was to target US interests.''

Police are still searching for other key suspects, including two Malaysians, identified as Dr. Azhari Bin Kusin and Nurdin Top, and an Indonesian named as Zulkarnaen. All were described as the main planners of the Marriott bombing.

Zulkarnaen leads an elite squad of militants identified as Laskar Khos, or special force, Mapasseng said. He said the group had been recruited from among some 300 Indonesians who trained in the past in Afghanistan and the Philippines.

He refused to elaborate.

Police said they are also tracing a US$45,000 money trail from a top al-Qaeda operative Hambali, also known as Riduan Isamuddin, who was arrested last week in Thailand and is now in US custody. He is suspected of involvement in the Marriott and Bali bombings, the Sept. 11 attacks in the US and other terror plots.

``Hambali sent the money in July 2003 from Thailand via a Malaysian who went to Indonesia and gave it to one of the bombers, possibly to fund the [Marriott] attack,'' Mapasseng said.
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